Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community - View Single Post

WhiteTiger · 11-20-2013, 12:38 AM

I just finished reading an article about "how it's about time we started paying college athletes." I read the whole article, and it really seemed to be to boil down to whining about how 'hard' male college football and basketball players have it. How, despite getting 'full ride' scholarships, they still have to find a way to earn a couple thousand a year to 'make sure ends meet'. The "full cost of attendance scholarships" that are being looked at to replace the "full ride" ones aren't enough, either. And of course, it is really just the men's football and basketball teams that need to start paying their players, because "they bring in the lion's share of the schools sports related revenue".

There was a lot more in the article that just felt so wrong it was making me shake my head as I read it. But it did get one thing right. "Paying players could make even more of a mockery of their education." It would basically turn them into employees (and open an interesting can of worms there, if the schools want a salary cap in what they'd pay their jocks...their jocks would need a union to speak for them...). I would look at that as actually removing the final layer of the laughable fiction that these players are there for the 'education first'.

Maybe it might not be a bad idea to start paying them and stop requiring them to actually GO to classes. Leave the learning to folks who are actually interested in learning and would benefit from it. The article postulates that "amateur" sports now stop at high school (possibly even as far back as middle school...) so maybe it's time for sports obsessed schools to ditch the fiction that the school part is important to them. Hell, look at the graduation rates of these "student-athletes"...it seems to be around 30-40%, since they are really just at the school to get noticed by a pro club, and then snapped up by said pro club when they are of the right age.

Maybe it is time to start paying them and start treating them like employees...and stop calling them students, while we're at it.

The original article I read was in the Sept 16, 2013 issue of time. U.S. cover story.

11-20-2013, 12:38 AM	#1
WhiteTiger Franchise Player Join Date: Nov 2010 Exp:	Time To Pay College Athletes? I just finished reading an article about "how it's about time we started paying college athletes." I read the whole article, and it really seemed to be to boil down to whining about how 'hard' male college football and basketball players have it. How, despite getting 'full ride' scholarships, they still have to find a way to earn a couple thousand a year to 'make sure ends meet'. The "full cost of attendance scholarships" that are being looked at to replace the "full ride" ones aren't enough, either. And of course, it is really just the men's football and basketball teams that need to start paying their players, because "they bring in the lion's share of the schools sports related revenue". There was a lot more in the article that just felt so wrong it was making me shake my head as I read it. But it did get one thing right. "Paying players could make even more of a mockery of their education." It would basically turn them into employees (and open an interesting can of worms there, if the schools want a salary cap in what they'd pay their jocks...their jocks would need a union to speak for them...). I would look at that as actually removing the final layer of the laughable fiction that these players are there for the 'education first'. Maybe it might not be a bad idea to start paying them and stop requiring them to actually GO to classes. Leave the learning to folks who are actually interested in learning and would benefit from it. The article postulates that "amateur" sports now stop at high school (possibly even as far back as middle school...) so maybe it's time for sports obsessed schools to ditch the fiction that the school part is important to them. Hell, look at the graduation rates of these "student-athletes"...it seems to be around 30-40%, since they are really just at the school to get noticed by a pro club, and then snapped up by said pro club when they are of the right age. Maybe it is time to start paying them and start treating them like employees...and stop calling them students, while we're at it. The original article I read was in the Sept 16, 2013 issue of time. U.S. cover story.